After its first official announcement on 24 August this year at the IFA Berlin, Samsung Mobile India is all geared-up to launch its flagship Note 8 phablet in India on 12 September.
The company has been actively teasing and promoting the device across its social media channels and while we know about the device, its specifications, the big announcement in Delhi for Note fans (who have been waiting for more than a year now) at the launch will be its price tag.
The hype
Coming a little over a year later, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will see a warm welcome from fans of the Note series in India. A recent report citing industry sources hinted that over 2.5 lakh fans in India have registered to buy the Samsung Galaxy Note 8. Out of these, about 1.5 lakh have registered on the Amazon India website with about 72,000 pre-bookings taking place on the very first day of the opening of the registrations.
Add to the above, nearly one lakh interested buyers who have registered to buy the Galaxy Note 8 on the Samsung India website and it is fairly clear that fans have been desperately waiting for a new Note after the last one was withdrawn from sales after some units started catching fire.
Where to catch it live
We have been invited to the grand launch to be held in Delhi at 12 pm on 12 September, but for those who cannot, the event will be live-streamed online for everyone to see. You can check out the Samsung Mobile India page for a live stream link. One that should be up a few hours before the launch takes place.
If you are not in an area with a stable network, you can follow us on Twitter for live updates, for the India specifications, options and finally the launch price. Simply search for @tech2eets and hit that 'follow' button.
Specifications and options
Since the international announcement took place in August, everyone is pretty much aware about the hardware specifications that will arrive on the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 in India.
That display would be a 6.3-inch QHD+ display sporting a resolution of 1,400 x 2,960 pixels in what Samsung has branded as the Infinity Display.
The overall shape is now more Note-like with sharper corners that are still rounded and maintain the new flagship design philosophy. On the back, things have changed a bit with a dual camera setup and the fingerprint reader now moving farther away from the centre, which may annoy a few users. Other finer details include an IP 68 dust and water resistance rating and the device weighs in at a hefty 195 grams.
As for the core specifications, buyers in India will be treated to a Samsung-made Exynos 8895 chipset instead of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset inside the US model. Unlike the Samsung Galaxy S8 that packed in 4 GB RAM as standard at launch (a 6 GB RAM model was launched later), the Note 8 will pack in 6 GB RAM (LP DDR4) with 64 GB/128 GB and even a 256 GB of internal storage that is expandable via a microSD card slot.
For now, there is no confirmation as to which of these variants would arrive in India, but expect Samsung India to launch only the 64 GB model to keep the pricing low. For those finding it a little too less, there's also a hybrid SIM setup to for expand storage, but it will only allow for microSD cards of up to 256 GB in capacity.
Moving to the cameras, the Galaxy Note 8 is the first smartphone from Samsung to pack in a dual camera setup. The device packs in two 12 MP cameras with varying lens setups. The front facing camera is an 8 MP AF unit with an f/1.7 aperture.
With the dual camera setup at the back, there is a 12 MP Dual Pixel AF camera with an f/1.7 aperture and OIS paired with a wide-angle lens. The second 12 MP camera features AF along with an f/2.4 aperture and OIS but with a telephoto lens that delivers 2X optical zoom. The camera can deliver up to 10x digital zoom.
Connectivity options include, 4G LTE support, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth v5.0, NFC, GPS and USB Type-C.
The device is equipped with an accelerometer, barometer, fingerprint sensor, gyro sensor, geomagnetic sensor, hall sensor, heart rate sensor, proximity sensor, RGB light sensor, iris sensor and a pressure sensor.
All of the above is powered by a 3,300 mAh battery that comes with Fast Charging. The Samsung Galaxy Note 8 runs Android 7.1.1 out of the box and will be available in Midnight Black, Orchid Gray, Maple Gold and Deepsea Blue. We can expect all three finishes to arrive in India.
Pricing
Indeed, this would have to be the most perplexing bit about Samsung Galaxy Note 8 launch in India and this is for two reasons.
The international model which has gone on pre-order in the UK is up for grabs at £869, which is approximately Rs 73,000 in Indian currency. This obviously does not include the various duties and taxes, but Samsung can control the price well, if it builds the Note 8 in India, like it did with the Samsung Galaxy S8 earlier this year.
Now is where we need to factor in the two reasons we mentioned earlier. We have the Samsung Galaxy S8+ model priced at Rs 64,900 officially. Then, there is the 6 GB RAM variant of the S8+ that is priced a tab bit higher at Rs 65,900 (currently out of stock). The 6 GB RAM version got a price cut recently and was earlier priced at Rs 70,900 in India.
Keeping the above in mind, it's easy to conclude that the Note 8 should be priced at Rs 69,900 for the 64 GB model, with a top of the line 256 GB model priced at around Rs 73,900. Indeed, these are not official yet, but going by the current pricing of the current Galaxy lineup, it seems most likely to be the way forward.
Like the Samsung Galaxy S8, Samsung could include a free-wireless charger for those who pre-ordered the device or even provide the Dex Station at half price. Those who pre-ordered the device should be in for a sweet surprise.
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